The present invention relates to the field of communications. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus for sending short messages over a telephonic network from Internet Protocol (IP) users linked to the telephonic network, to subscribers of the network, and directly displaying the message on the display of their telephone terminals.
The use of Short Message Services (SMS) is widespread and rapidly penetrating the market of cellular telephones. Short messages are also delivered from a base station to a plurality of subscribers by pagers, using radio communication channels. Additional applications, such as news, weather and traffic information also employ short messages that are delivered to rapidly update subscribers.
Another type of subscribers are subscribers that are connected to an information system via a telephonic connection. For example, subscribers such as employees in an organization normally are connected to a Private Branch Exchange (PBX) via personal telephone terminals. These telephone terminals, sometimes known as xe2x80x9csmart telephonesxe2x80x9d, comprise a small display, usually for displaying the time, date, name/identification of another PBX caller (subscriber) from the same organization and call duration measurement. These smart phones usually have a voice message recording capability in their inherent circuitry or in a corresponding memory cell located in the PBX. However, these voice messages are not promptly accessible and therefore, not effective when on line update is required. In addition, in order to access a PBX subscriber, it is necessary to dial up through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and have access to the extension of the subscriber via the PBX.
Local Area Networks (LANs) enable several computers (users) to be connected to a computer network which is normally limited to the immediate area and operates according to one of the common networking protocols, such as Ethernet. PBXs sometimes comprise a built in path for connection to a LAN, that may also be connected to an IP network such as the Internet or Intranet via a router. Therefore, a physical connection is established between IP users that are distributed over the IP network and subscribers of the PBX. Messages may also be sent to a subscriber via E-mail, but this implies that the subscriber is connected to the LAN via a computer and that the E-mail application is continuously active. It is therefore desirable to provide a communication path between IP users and each extension of the PBX, that enables each subscriber equipped with a smart telephone to receive short messages from an IP user directly and promptly on his telephone display.
Several Voice Over IP (VOIP) techniques are employed to communicate IP users with subscribers of a PBX. Some of them employ gateway architectures (manufactured by, among others, Vocaltec and Netspeak) for this connection, which enable IP users to establish a voice call over the IP network. Although these architectures provide a communication path between the IP network and the PBX, they are limited to VOIP and can not be used to access the subscriber telephone display.
While E-mail is well known in the industry, it requires the recipient to have a computer, and to be connected to the E-mail delivery network, or to connect to the network in order to receive his E-mail. In adition, E-mail is not a real-time delivery network, typically involving a server computer in between the sender and the recipient.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,461 describes a telephone terminal with interactive display arrangement, which sufficiently provides a desired level of clarity to a user who wishes to move about in a hierarchy of menu screens available on the display. However, this arrangement is associated only with the visual interaction between the user and messages that represent operating features of the telephone terminal. No message delivery features from one telephone terminal to another are available, and the messaging functionality is limited to each specific terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,337 describes an arrangement for varying the display time for messages displayable on a telephone terminal, according to the length and the complexity content of the information in each message. Here again, the messaging functionality is limited to each specific terminal.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,509 describes a Short Message Server (SMS) with relatively limited memory requirements, for storing messages destined to subscribers via a mobile telephone system. The SMS does not keep a subscriber database, but rather utilizes information stored in a Home Location Register (HLR) database to determine whether a message destination is valid and/or authorized. However, this SMS is designed to serve mainly TCP/IP based network, not subscribers of a Private Branch Exchange (PBX).
All the methods described above have not yet provided satisfactory solutions to the problem of sending a short message from IP users to a telephonic subscriber which may be directly displayed on his telephone display.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for displaying a short message sent from an IP user to a telephonic subscriber, which overcome the drawbacks of prior art.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for displaying a short message sent from an IP user to a telephonic subscriber directly on his telephone display.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for displaying a short message sent from an IP user to the telephone display of a telephonic subscriber using unsophisticated software.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.
The present invention is directed to a method for sending and displaying short messages from IP users which are linked to a telephonic network via a LAN and an IP network, such as the Internet, to subscribers of the telephonic network. By using the term xe2x80x9cIP networkxe2x80x9d it is meant to include any network or any system, in which data packets are arranged and transferred according to the Internet Protocol (e.g., the Internet, an Intranet, a LAN, a WAN and others) or any other xe2x80x9cpacket switched networkxe2x80x9d including any network or any system, in which data is divided to packets of fixed or variable size and then transferred to its destination.
A dialogue is held between said IP users and a call manager embedded in the telephonic network. The dialogue provides the call manager the content, sender ID and address information of each short message. The sender ID may include any type of information that can identify the sender, such as a code, his real name, a nickname, his E-mail adress etc. The content and sender ID information are stored in a database, providing each subscriber an indication about received short messages, and the messages are displayed on his telephone display in response to a signal from the subscriber.
Preferably, a plurality of IP users are distributed over the IP network with direct access to the IP network. Preferably, a LAN is used to connect a second plurality of local users, and a router is used to connect between the LAN and the IP network. A PBX is linked to the LAN, and is connected to a plurality of extensions. The PBX is capable of storing and converting incoming IP data from the IP network to a telephonic protocol and transferring the converted data to each extension. A plurality of smart telephones are connected to corresponding extensions of the PBX. Each telephone comprises a display for visually displaying arriving messages and an indicating circuitry for providing indications about arriving messages. The PBX also comprises a processing storage and control circuitry for processing and storing arriving messages and sending them to their destined PBX extension according to address information, and a software agent for chatting with the IP user by sending to and receiving from the user, data packets in chat mode. By using the term xe2x80x9cchattingxe2x80x9d, it is meant to describe a visual/textual, real-time, bidirectional transmission between two entities connected via an IP network in a bidirectional session. While chatting, messages are delivered immediately, without the need to store them first in a server. A connection is established between the IP user and the software agent by operating an SMS to PBX or chat software by the IP user and providing the IP address of the PBX. Each IP user (sender) who wishes to send a short message operates chat software to communicate with the software agent. Each short message contains address and a text fields, delimited by prefixed characters. The software agent, embedded into the LAN interface card, collects the content and address information of short messages obtained during each chat session, and sends them to the call manager software which resides on the main call processor board, which processes the collected information and stores the information separately for each destined extension. The LAN interface card sends a confirmation message to said IP user. An indication is sent to the subscriber""s telephone which is connected to the destined extension and operates a beep and/or a blinking lamp in the telephone. Upon receiving a request signal from the destined subscriber, all stored short messages which are destined to said extension are retreived from said storage and control circuitry and sent to the display of said subscriber""s telephone over the telephonic connection between the PBX and the destined extension.
The invention is also directed to an apparatus for sending and displaying short messages from IP users which are linked to a telephonic network via a LAN and/or an IP network, such as the Internet, to subscribers of the telephonic network. The apparatus comprises circuitry for holding a dialogue between said IP users and a call manager embedded in said telephonic network, circuitry for providing said call manager the content, sender ID and address information of each short message, circuitry for storing said content and address information in a database, circuitry for providing each subscriber an indication about sent short messages and circuitry for displaying the content of said messages on his telephone display in response to a signal from said subscriber.